Yoneya Umeda Honten

Fried things on sticks! Lots of things fried, on sticks, like fried things. On sticks.
Anyways, get the sampler then add stuff on. The fried chicken wing stuffed with cod roe is pretty neat, but not really particularly special tasting.

There comes a tragic time in any person’s life where foods you’ve enjoyed as a child have utterly and completely lost their charm, usually owing to factors such as having a more refined palate, health issues and what have you.
For me, that tragic transformation was fried foods of any genera, which is quite unfortunate if the place you call closest to «home» just happens to be Osaka, and if you just happen to find yourself introducing a college friend to Osaka’s famous fried trio of okonomiyaki, takoyaki, and kushikatsu.
Nevertheless, I came here with two friends around 2pm on a Saturday afternoon. Despite the large amount of the Osaka population that gather in the Umeda district on the weekends and regardless of the fact that the North Mall of the insensitively named Umeda Whity is inundated with restaurants that specialize in kushikatsu, okonomiyaki and etc., Yoneya was the only establishment that had a wait to get inside.
Luckily, our wait wasn’t too long – and would have been much shorter if we had opted to eat at the standing counter/​bar section to the right – and we were seated in a very intimate corner of the restaurant. Oh, and when I say «intimate,» I mean «Osaka intimate»; if you want to enjoy your fried delicacies while being able to converse or discuss the politics of the day with your fellow man or woman, you’ve probably come to the wrong place; this place is pretty lively for American standards, and the locals cannot be more happier about it.
Anyway, the food. Like any kushikatsu place, you can pretty much order anything and ask to have it skewered and deep fried before having it brought to you for your eating pleasure. You should also note that whereas Osakans can be pretty forgiving about table manners – at least more so than their Kantou counterparts – there is absolutely no double-​dipping in the bucket of the dipping tare that comes with your order.
The neta for the kushi is as aforementioned, has everything and anything worth sticking into a skewer and plunging into a deep fryer; despite my reservations against anything that can instantaneously spike my triglyceride levels to over 300, we all ordered a serving of the Combination Set, (盛り合わせ four skewers: Beef, Shrimp, Kisu, Green Pepper) Crab Claws (かに爪), and then an order of the Cod Roe Chicken Wings (手羽先明太) which were admittedly as fascinating as they were unhealthy.
After all that’s been said, Yoneya is still a stand-​up joint when it comes to trying one of Osaka’s favorite comfort foods — whereas I still maintain that the best kushikatsu is those that are cooked DIY style at home, coming to joints like Yoneya probably beats out the hours spent skewing various meats and vegetables in preparation/​or the cleaning up afterwards. Not to mention you’d also have to buy one of those mini table top kushikatsu makers/​mini deep fryers.
A huge caveat for Yoneya: you have to be able to communicate your order in written form in order for you to get your food here – be sure there’s at least one person in your party that can read and/​or write some form of Japanese.